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Essays

Boomerang

Empires have a way of seeding their own destruction.

Essays

Retrograde

Like water, gold simply can’t tell you what it used to be.

  • Japanese convenience stores are hiring robots run by workers in the Philippines

    Tele-operators in Manila control robots and train AI for global firms, as offshoring automation creates new tech jobs and new risks in the Philippines. https://restofworld.org/2025/philippines-offshoring-automation-tech-jobs/ more ›

  • Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots

    Internal documents show the company that changed how people shop has a far-reaching plan to automate 75 percent of its operations. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/technology/inside-amazons-plans-to-replace-workers-with-robots.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vE8.FwGC.6M9rnks4nUaO&smid=url-share more ›

  • HBR IdeaCast: 20 Years of Freakonomics: How It Changed Business

    Listen: https://ift.tt/LN3G21k When it first came out in 2005, Freakonomics unearthed the hidden side to everything, helping bring behavioral economics to the forefront of popular culture. But it also has had lasting impacts on how leaders understand problems, how advertisers… more ›

  • Sinica Podcast: The View from Behind Xi Jinping’s Desk, with Jonathan Czin

    Listen: https://ift.tt/beRmNIr This week on the Sinica Podcast, I speak with Jonathan Czin, the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. His new essay in Foreign Affairs,… more ›

  • Laughing all the way to the Central Bank

    The steady rise in gold prices in recent years is directly linked to investor concerns about the future stability of the global economy. Crises ranging from the coronavirus pandemic to Russia’s war against Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East have all propelled the price of gold to new… more ›

  • WSJ What’s News: An Economy Built on Speculation—for Better and for Worse

    Listen: https://ift.tt/HGV6UAo From the land mania following the Revolutionary War to the AI craze now, speculation is in the American economy's DNA. These kinds of big bets have shaped our present and continue to fuel tomorrow's economic growth. Host Katherine… more ›

  • Russell Vought: The Shadow President

    Russell Vought is one of the most powerful people in the Trump administration. For almost three decades, he worked in Congress and held prominent roles at conservative think tanks. But he was little known outside of political circles. He’s now… more ›

  • Why Trump Is Spending $20B to ‘Make Argentina Great Again’ | WSJ

    President Trump recently announced a $20 billion deal to rescue Argentina and President Javier Milei, angering U.S. farmers and putting American taxpayers at risk. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the Trump Administration was also assembling an additional… more ›

  • How Sam Altman Played Hollywood With OpenAI’s Sora 2

    OpenAI’s CEO brazenly regurgitated major studios’ characters to allow video app Sora 2 to spit out clips tailor-made for users. Insiders at the major agencies are alarmed — and some wonder whether the studios are doing enough. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sam-altman-openai-sora-agencies-talent-1236401618/ more ›

  • China’s innovation fixation

    The coming plenum will reveal Xi’s economic agenda as security project, not growth program. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/china-s-innovation-fixation?utm_source=semafor more ›